bagpipes are my new favorite thing

Well hello there... it has been quite some time since I last wrote. I apologize for that. I do have a correction to make... again. The town where the football game was Motherwell, not Maxwell.
I believe I left off on Tuesday 29 September.
I went to pub golf that night with the volleyball club. Pub golf is sort of like golf, hence the name. You go to 9 pubs and have a certain drink at every pub. You have to finish that drink in a certain amount of 'gulps' or 'chugs' (whichever term you'd prefer to use). So an example would be having a pint of beer or cider and we to get par you had to drink it in 4. ( I did that one in 5 lol). So needless to say it was an expensive night and a drunken night as well. It was crazy all night long. I got to really know a lot of the volleyball players and actually learn their names. I am horrible with names. We all had to dress up as golf players as well. My costume was pretty weak, but I had a cool hat that sort of looked like a golfing hat. Except that I'm pretty sure I was missing it most of the night. Everyone was wearing everyone elses things. So of course you want to know the names of the pubs over here and the drink we had to have, so the 9 pubs we went to were: O'Neills (pint of beer or cider), Morrisons (vodka & mixer), Outback (cocktail), City Walls (vodka or rum and mixer), Corn Exchange (a shot), Sportsters (alcopop, which is sort of like a wine cooler), No. 2 Baker Street (bottle of cider), Drouthy Neebors (glass of wine) and Nicky Tams (bottle of beer or alcopop). After we finished with the 9 pubs, we went to Dusk. It was pretty empty when we first got there but it was still lots of fun. Some of the names of the volleyball people: Lisa, Amy, Cathy, Tanya, Calum, Graeme, Craig, Luke.. many more. All are soo fun and nice. Love 'em!

Wednesday 30 September
This is why I should write more often because now the only thing I remember doing is going to volleyball that evening. I know I developed a massive cold that day as well.

Thursday 1 October, Friday 2 October, and Saturday 3 October
I didn't do much these days. I had a cold and was trying to rejuvenate. Friday I went to a pub and the bouncer asked for my I.D. No big deal, not worried. But then he continued to look at it for a minute or so. He looked confused... so the other bouncer came over and looked at it and was like oh she's american, let her in. Geesh.. everytime I show my I.D. they stare at it forever. I'm pretty sure I look over 18 so it's not a fake. Anywho.. I think the issue and the part that throws them off is that my license is vertical, because I unfortunately am not 21 and they do weird things in America. Saturday I just stayed in and did homework. Also skyped with everyone at my dad's for pumpkin picking. I'm sad I wasn't there but hopefully all of you that went had a good time.

Sunday 4 October
Katie and I went to the Catholic church here. I believe it is called St. Mary's. I figured all Catholic churches everywhere are very similar. Well nope. Twice we screwed up. At the end of mass they say "let us pray" and you stand, right? Well here they kneel, so as we get up to stand everyone kneels.. thankfully we were towards the back of the church. Katie and I went on a hunt for a full-lenth mirror. It took awhile but we found one. And I got to pretend to be the wall as she looked to see if she could see herself in it..don't ask lol, one of those spur of the moment, we're being silly moments. The rest of the day was devoted to paper writing, not that I got much done.

Monday 5 October
I had classes and attempted some more paper writing. And that didn't go so well again. I then had volleyball, which I LOVE! I have missed it sooo much. So now that I get to play again I feel so much better :) Katie and I ended up going over to Chris and Graeme's later that night to watch a movie, Trainspotting. It is an interesting movie. I'd have to say it is good but different at the same time.

Tuesday 6 October
I actually had to finish my paper because it was due on Wednesday. Let me tell you, it was not my best work but I haven't gotten it back so I can't be sure yet. Oh well. I have more papers to write later anyway. I can redeem myself then. I think I finished writing the paper around midnight. And I have learned, actually I already knew this, but I am the queen of procrastination. I got a package from home... I got 12 boxes of Macaroni and Cheese, 2 boxes of Easy Mac, Halloween clins for the windows and some Halloween candy. Amazing!

Wednesday 7 October
Have I mentioned how much I love Wednesdays, no class=amazing! Katie, Britta, Maria and I decided to go to the Stirling castle. We got a lovely tour. I think I've said this before but the castle is gorgeous! I'll work on getting pictures uploaded to this. I also bought some souvenirs and postcards. I should be gettig postcards out within the next week or so. I know, I'm slacking in that department. I had volleyball again that night. The practices are finally getting to be fun and intense. It was a lot more 'team' type stuff. He has me setting, which I'm not sure if I like because I like back row much better, but it'll do. It's still fun.
After volleyball I found out I had to make some mac n cheese for the boys. They didn't like our Kraft macaroni and cheese. Broke my heart, it's my favorite food ever! Apparently it has to be home made.. which I can't do, the box is far easier.

Thursday 8 October
I had my history seminar. Usually the tutor scares me. She's from Iceland I believe. But I actually knew what I was talking about in the class and she told me I did a good job, so no longer is she the scary tutor lady. She's actually kind of funny sometimes too. We had another little volleyball practice in the afternoon because there was supposed to be a game on Sunday. The game was cancelled because the West Scotland or west of scotland, not sure exactly what they are called didn't have a team. But after practice I went with Graeme, Chris, (different Graeme and Chris from earlier) Calum and Iain to Long Bar for an afternoon drink.. mine was a hot chocolate and a donut. The practice was fun because it was all team players, so no beginners playing with us. I always feel more productive when it is just the team. My flatmates and I went out to Fubar later that night. Most of the night was pretty fun.

Friday 9 October
Went to my 3 hours of lectures, horrible, I couldn't concentrate at all. Then went to Tesco to go grocery shopping. Then went out to Morrison's pub for an hour or so. It was really loud though so you couldn't hear anyone talk.

Saturday 10 October
Katie and I went to Glasgow. We took the train there all by ourselves.. lol. It's really not that hard. Very annoying though that single ticket costs 10p less than a return ticket. Except that when we got there, a train was going to leave in about 5 minutes and by the time we got our tickets and such we had missed the train literally by seconds. So we had to wait for the next one. Glasgow has amazing shopping. There is one stretch that is just lined with shops. I liked Glasgow. It was very modern. There were people everywhere and they don't know how to walk down the street. I kept bumping into people constantly. There were bagpipers out and people playing the accordian and guitar. It was crazy. Around 2 in the afternoon we met up with Fraser and he took us to the Kelvingrove museum. We got to ride the subway, or underground as he called it. It was noisier than the subway in NYC but otherwise pretty much the same. Less busy though and it goes in a giant circle. I love trains and subways and all those cool things that us Wisconsinites miss out on. Then we went to eat at the Filling Station. Katie and I both stole our glass bottle filled with 'distilled water.' Shhh.. don't tell anyone :P Then I went to hang out with Chris in Maddiston. We went to pizza hut, which I didn't even know they had them over here. And surprisingly it tasted the same.

Sunday 11 October
Had volleyball practice from 1-4 instead of our scheduled game. It was intense, but a good intense. The girls team played the boys team and a mixed team. I believe we beat the boys twice! :P Then I went to Beanscene which is a really cute little coffee shop. Later on Katie and I went to eat at my new favorite pub/restaurant. It's called Whistlebinkies. Such a great name. And the food is great and not too expensive.

Monday 12 October
I went to class, then slept some more, did some homework, went to another class, did some more homework, then had volleyball for two hours. Volleyball was really productive and good until a girl came down on her foot wrong. It took a half an hour for them to move her and take her away. They actually called for an ambulence for her. It kind of ruined the rest of practice. I got back from practice and Fraser came over. Telling us some funny jokes and other stories. And I've attempted to do some reading for my classes, but as you can see I'm writing in my blog, which is far more important. Last Thursday, Katie, Maria, and I booked our flights to Rome, Venice, and Barcelona for fall break. We still need to book a flight home though or we could just stay there?? :) I plan on writing on Sunday again, so it won't be a whole two weeks.

Oh those of you wondering if Fubar stands for anything over here, yes it does. The same thing as it does back home, just use your imagination.

I saw a pink limousine a few days ago while I was on the bus. Kind of made my day.

We've had 3 fire alarms in the four weeks we've been here. Stop burning your food people!

My new favorite words are shite and skinnymalinkie (I got this one out of my Scottish dictionary). Appartently skinnymalinkie comes from a children's rhyme.

Some more Scottish words:
tartan=plaid
ken=know
hob=stove top
skinnymalinkie is an extremely skinny person/animal